Many passengers have stated the pilot lied to the anxious Shomer Shabbos passengers, telling them he would return to the gate to let them off, when in fact he was preparing to take off. He used the lie to trick passengers to return to their seats.

Flight 002 landed in Athens before Shabbos, where passengers were put up by El Al in a hotel, and the local Chabad hosted and catered meals for over 120 passengers for Shabbos.

The audio clip that follows, is just another witness to exactly what occurred, despite the Israeli media spewing anti-Chareidi hatred.

Meanwhile, radio transmissions between the pilot and the JFK Air Traffic Control Tower has surfaced, clearly showing how he lied:

EL AL PILOT SAYS “WE APPRECIATE IF WE CAN (HAVE CLEARANCE) TO DEPART AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, OTHERWISE THE PASSENGERS ARE GOING TO CONTINUE MAKING PROBLEMS (DEMANDING TO BE LET OFF THE PLANE INSTEAD OF POSSIBLE CHILLUL SHABBOS)”

Chafetz also claimed the flight crew arrived late to the flight, adding to their delayed departure from New York.

Back in July 2018, YWN also reported that despite reports to the contrary, even El Al admitted delays on a flight from JFK to Ben-Gurion were not the result of a chareidi passenger refusing to be seated next to a woman as reported, but because of a delay in the positioning of the plane on the runway. The El Al statements read; “The details reported on the subject were inaccurate to say the least. In reality, the delay was not related to the event that was publicized. There was a delay in the move of the plane to the takeoff runway of an hour without any connection to the incident,” referring to earlier reports that chareidi passengers caused a flight delay after insisting on moving seats away from a woman.

Notwithstanding the claims against the ELAL pilot etc and the wonderful work of Chabad in Athens, this whole coverage and the continuous new revelations all miss the point, in my humble opinion.
The fact is that anyone who cares about Shabbos which includes all Chareidi and many not yet Chareidi Jews, SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ON THAT FLIGHT EVEN IF IT LEFT ON TIME.
You cannot travel on a long haul flight which is scheduled to land just a few hours before Shabbos. You have just enough time to get to your final destination even if it arrives on time. Bnei Beraq traffic is horrendous at the best of times (I have never traveled on the BB part of route 4 without sitting in traffic. Route 1 to Yerushalayim is also heavy especially on erev shabbos. (lets not even talk about going to Netanya, Haifa or Tzfas)
You then arrive just before shabbos after a long jet lagging journey.
This is called Hachonoh for shabbos, i dont think so.
And that assumes everything goes ok.
No delays in NY, no diversions on route, no long lines at passport and baggage reclaim. no customs inspection. No traffic delays etc etc. Any one of these can cause Chillul shabbos which would NOT be an Oiness.
What is worse is that because so many Yidden do use this flight, ELAL puts it on, which definitely involves some chilul shabbos even after it has landed (the pilot may live in Beer Sheva). So the people who use this flight are actually causing other yidden (Chareidi or not) to be mechallel shabbos.
As has been posted before by myself and others the last flight to EY from NY should be on Thursday morning I would say around dawn,which arrives around midnight, some say lunchtime but certainly not later. I persoanlly travelled from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv on a Wednesday night, it was a nachas to arrive on Thursday evening and was well rested before shabbos.
I am not sure if the Yidden should have been celebrating in the airport or hotel in Athens, Al cheit would have been more appropriate.
Someone posted about the chinuch to children about Kedushas Shabbos. What nonsense!
The only Chinuch was how not to behave.
I am sorry to spoil the euphoria but I feel the need to speak out against this unacceptable practice.

you were not lied to the circumstances changed , the bottom line is el al made exratodinary efforts to cater to your needs they contacted Chabad they put you up in a hotel, and frankly who told you to board a plane Thursday in a snow storm , so you are entitled to nothing , but there is this attitude of magiah lee, if everyone was so concerned about Shabbos they would not have boarded at the time they did , the pilot should be commended for putting up with the classic sense of entitlement that exists, you should be thanking elal this is a commercial airline not a monsey trails bus

@arib: El Al did not arrange the shabbos with chabad of athens, the beautiful shabbos that chabad managed to put together was after they we’re contacted by Rabbi Sorotzkins who was on the flights organization, after he contacted them before the flight took off from New York and he told them to follow the flight & then arrange a shabbos wherever it will land, so there is NOTHING to be grateful to El Al for

PH, El Al arranged it, but they did not inform the flight crew who could have told the passengers. They left them hanging, and naturally agitated, and did not even understand how this was a problem.

I’ve been in similar situations, when El Al arranged food vouchers for stranded passengers at a treife restaurant and literally did not understand that most of the passengers would be left starving. We had to invade the office to make our demands heard, or they would have ignored us; only when we refused to leave the office without some arrangement being made did they contact a kosher restaurant. This wasn’t out of malice but ignorance — unacceptable ignorance from a company whose customer base is so heavily shabbos- and kashrus-keeping.

actuall ph elal arranged it, thats number one and number two as i mentioned this is a commercial airline not a monsery trails bus , if the people on the plane were so concerned they would not have boarded, elal spent a fortune landing in Athens , no other airline would have done that, this is all an attitude the same attitude as people that dont get vaccinated its all about me me me , there was a snow storm they did the best they could and they got there before shabbos ,

actuall ph elal arranged it, thats number one and number two as i mentioned this is a commercial airline not a monsery trails bus , if the people on the plane were so concerned they would not have boarded, elal spent a fortune landing in Athens , no other airline would have done that, this is all an attitude the same attitude as people that dont get vaccinated its all about me me me , there was a snow storm they did the best they could and they got there before shabbos , vayhi haam kmissonanim